Hands up those who delight in the provocative taste of Lesotho’s wild berries (monokots’oai)! You will be happy to know that the National University of Lesotho (NUL) will soon apply a high tech Tissue Culture method to reinvent these disappearing plants for your benefit!
That is, thanks to Dr Mpho Liphoto the biotechnologist and Dr ‘Mabataung Sekoli the horticulturalist in the Faculty of Agriculture.
The team which also includes Mr Khothatso Nkhabu and Ms ‘Mamoipone Sebetia will work to see Lesotho produce the berries for use in juices, yogurts, wines and flavorings. You will use them in your hedges and as source of nectar for bees.
When asked about the reasons behind the choice of indigenous (local) wild berries instead of international varieties (as it has been the norm in Lesotho), Dr Liphoto became decidedly philosophical, “you can only solve the crisis in your own environment by using what you have in your own environment.”
And she added, “You can’t import help. That is unsustainable because external help addresses the symptoms of the crisis while internal help addresses the root causes of the crisis!”
Is that not remarkable to listen to?
The trip will start with one of the most miraculous of scientific processes—Tissue Culture! In the process, the NUL brains are going to select the best, disease-free cells from the existing disease-loaded berries and regenerate new disease-free plants in a carefully controlled environment!
You will like it!
It doesn’t come as a surprise then, that this amazing project, which comes in partnership with the Ministry of Forestry and Land Reclamation, won a quarter of a million funding from UNDP-GEF Small Grants Program to recreate and propagate Lesotho’s disappearing wild berries.
The motives behind this project are very clear. “Wild berries such as raspberries and blackberries found in Lesotho adapt to the extremes of everything,” Dr Liphoto said.
They are as comfortable surviving too much rain as they are surviving lack of it. They do well in scorching summer temperatures as they do in blistering winter temperatures.
Dr Liphoto is, of course, quick to clarify, “It doesn’t mean these berries need to live in the extremes, it is just that they can survive the extremes which can simply wipe off other amateur plants.”
“In fact, our wild berries are super-plants!” she quipped even as she showered praises on these extraordinary plants.
So in our ever-changing climate, which according to Dr Liphoto, “may be irreversible, at least under the current status quo, we have no option but to live on plants that can adapt.”
Wild berries couldn’t provide a better choice!
There are added benefits. Unlike grass, which is often used to rehabilitate our increasingly bare land, the berries will add a lot more value.
Times are changing and NUL modern scholars are changing along. While in the past, the question used to be, “what are we going to do?” Now the question is “why are we going to do?” We need to see value!
But how on earth are they going to do it? Don’t go away; we won’t use too much scientific verbosity to explain.
First, it is Tissue Culture. You see, at some important regions in their bodies, plants have those magical cells called meristematic cells. Like stem cells in animals, the cells can change to become any part of a plant or become a whole plant, depending on conditions.
As a bonus, these cells are often disease free even in a sick plant! Lesotho’s berries are sick due to lack of care. Apparently we have learned to harvest them and eat from them while we haven’t learned to take care of them.
Therefore the real secret is in the meristematic cells. If they can grow to become any part of the plant, the question is which conditions can we choose to steer them to be what we want?
“We will isolate these cells, put them in an environment of carefully chosen nutrition and hormones and let them grow into full blown, new berry plants, but disease free! Nutrients are for feeding, hormones are for directing them into full plants.”
“Then we will take these fragile plants, incubate them in growth rooms and harden them in greenhouses, just as you would incubate a prematurely born baby, to shield her from harsh outside conditions in the beginning. Then we will take them into nurseries where they will grow into full blown plants for use by businesses, communities and individuals.”
Why not choose commonplace propagation methods such as seeds or cuttings? “Because,” Dr Liphoto said calmly, “at this stage, we are regenerating, not propagating.” Apparently, propagation passes on the diseases to new plants, recreation doesn’t.
“We will later find the best propagation method as part of the project ,” she added.
It is true that the project is meant to benefit the people in the area of Senqu River Valley in Lesotho. But in the end, it will benefit us all! We are surely speaking also for you when we say, we can’t wait to crunch those berries!